1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer-aided learning systems for facilitating the annunciation of human voice. More particularly, this invention relates to computer-aided learning systems that facilitates vocalizations such as singing.
2. Description of the Background Art
Presently, there exist many systems for teaching a person how to sing in tune and on beat. Commonly, the prior art systems focus more on the technology employed than the visual presentation to the singer. Accordingly, without an appropriate visual interface for the singer, the prior art systems are of nominal benefit to teaching the singer how to sing in tune and on beat. Representative patents of such prior art systems are disclosed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,413 entitled “Vocal Display Device” discloses a karaoke device that displays the strength of the singer's voice on a display screen. However, this patent fails to disclose a meaningful visual representation of whether the singer is singing in tune.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,687 discloses a “Musical Performance System” in which the vocal signal of the singer and the musical signal of a musical instrument are recorded on separate tracks and then compared, the result of which is displayed via a LED display to indicate the results of such comparison.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,789 discloses a “Music Training Apparatus” including one or more tone sources that are displayed as fixed-sized “bars” on a display and the singer's voice is displayed in the form of a pitch tracking line.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,525,062 and 5,906,494 disclose a “Training Apparatus for Singing” in which the singer's vocal characteristics are compared with a model vocal characteristic to evaluate the singer's vocal characteristics relative to the model. The result of a comparison of tune error is displayed in the form of color-coded musical notes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,213 discloses a karaoke teaching apparatus that analyzes a singing voice to detect a musical register thereof at which the live vocal part is actually performed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,435 discloses an audio-acoustic proficiency testing device that transduces, captures, measures, compares, analyzes, records and then reports on a singer's performance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,617,503 discloses a vocal training device including playback modes of melody only, harmony only, melody and harmony and a multi-unit playback of melody, harmony and harmony components.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,725,108 discloses a system and method for interpretation and visualization of acoustic spectra to discover the pitch and timbre of musical sounds via display of a pitch tracking line.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,789 discloses a tone analysis system with a visual display in the form of sheet music containing a musical staff and lighted musical notes.
The disclosure of each of the above-listed patents is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Commercial prior art systems include TM “Sing & See” produced by Cantare Systems of Surry Hills, Australia. In the TM “Sing & See” system, a pitch tracking line is displayed on a computer screen as the singer sings. Another commercialized implementation includes TM “Singing Tutor” published by Vimas of Kiev, Ukraine that displays a pitch tracking line on a computer screen in real time as the singer sings. Still another includes TM “Sing” formerly published by now-defunct Music Player as well as TM “Karaoke Revolution” and “Audio Mirror” produced by Konami of Tokyo, Japan and ECS Media of Champaign, Ill., respectively. However, TM “Sing”, TM “Karaoke Revolution” and TM “Audio Mirror” systems do not display a real time tracking line. For example, in the case of TM “Karaoke Revolution”, a visual representation of “pitch tubes” are “lit up” when the singer sings each note in tune, but it does not employ a real time pitch tracking line.
It should be appreciated from the foregoing that the prior art systems teach in general the use of a real time tracking line. However, none of the prior art systems visually quantifies the accuracy of a singer singing in tune or out-of-tune in a manner that teaches the singer how much to raise or lower the tone of their voice as the song is being sung. Accordingly, presently there exists a need for a computer-aided learning system that employs a pitch tracking line and displays it in a way that a singer may, in real time, adjust upwardly or downwardly the tone of their voice while singing.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the computer-aided learning systems.
Another object of this invention is to provide a computer-aided learning system employing a pitch tracking line enclosed within target pitch boxes to visually quantify singing in tune and on beat.
Another object of this invention is to provide a computer-aided learning system employing target pitch boxes that are reduced in size depending on the desired ease in learning how to sing each note in tune.
Another object of this invention is to provide a computer-aided learning system employing a pitch tracking line and target pitch boxes that may be reduced in length to allow a singer to more easily transition from one note to another.
Another object of this invention is to provide a computer-aided learning system employing a pitch tracking line that determines a singer's comfortable vocal range and transposes the key of a prearranged song accordingly.
Another object of this invention is to provide a computer-aided learning system employing a pitch tracking line that determines a singer's comfortable vocal range and increases or decreases the key of a prearranged song by one or more octaves.
Another object of this invention is to provide a computer-aided learning system employing a pitch tracking line that includes a scoring system for numerically quantifying how accurately a singer sang in tune and rhythm.
The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.